You can find lots of things to do with sweet potatoes and butternut squash. But if you’re looking for reliable and fairly easy, you can chunk and roast them. First, peel the potatoes or squash. (Butternut squash is one winter squash you can actually peel.) Then chop them into chunks or slices. The smaller your chunks, the faster they will cook. Then, toss the chunks in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add chopped herbs if you have them. Bake at 350 degrees for half an hour or so. You can eat them when they are fork-tender, but consider waiting until they have carmelized some. Mmmm….

Summer is still hanging on by a thread!

Asian eggplant, sorrel, tomatoes, and garlic

I ate the sorrel plain. I know I’m crazy, but I really like it that way.

The tomatoes are amazing. They are as ripe as they can be! So red and flavorful!

The year of arugula continues…

yummy arugula!

And there’s even more apple goodness…

caramel apple cakes and eggs

I put the cakes in the freezer to save them for a Halloween treat for Chris and me. Maybe we’ll enjoy the evening with some cider or mulled wine. Or maybe some ale, as in “cakes and.”

Preseason is fun, but it’s strategically different from the peak of summer. The winter produce lasts longer, and you have two weeks to use it. Here’s what we got in our first Dinner for 2 preseason 2012 box.

Brussels sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes, and sweet potatoes

I’ve never had Jerusalem artichokes. All the recipes I’m seeing seem to treat them like sort of like potatoes. You peel and boil them and then bake or sauté the slices. I’m thinking of making a tiny sliced sunchoke sauté to be topped with sour cream.

I never liked Brussels sprouts till I got them fresh and tasty. Most recipes call for removing the unfurled leaves before cooking sprouts. And you definitely should. Just don’t toss them. Keep them around for a fast stir-fry. For the sprouts, chop them in half and sauté them in some olive oil and butter with a little garlic and salt and a lot of pepper. Remove them before they get too mushy. Mushy sprouts are not yummy. (more…)

Today we had a CSA supper thanks to our last butternut squash and some defrosted mushroom pasta. (That’s parmesan cheese on the top.) We sliced the neck of the squash into rounds and baked them with butter and a little brown sugar.

Biscotti, again

I also made more biscotti. I love this recipe; it’s so forgiving. This time I used defrosted eggs, and the yolks didn’t quite get beaten in. I also threw in some ground flax seed I found on clearance at Kroger. But the biscotti still came out fine.

So this is my last bag of produce for at least a whole month. I’m trying to be brave about it. I bought some extra stuff from the online store to keep us going.

lettuce

butternut squash

apples

walnuts

duck eggs

catnip sock

The butternut squash is a linebacker of a squash, so we’ll get a bunch of dishes out of that. I’m going to cook the neck and base separately again.

I can make an argument for the lettuce, squash, and apples as staples for the coming weeks, but the walnuts, duck eggs, and catnip sock are just splurges. Merry Christmas to me!

Duck eggs are said to taste richer than chicken eggs. I guess duck embryos need more fat to develop right. But I’m not sure what’s best to do with richer eggs – how to get the most bang for my duck. Richer scrambled eggs? Richer pound cake? I’ll have to dig around and see what people say.(more…)

We cooked our butternut squash in two stages: the neck and the bottom. First we cut off the neck, peeled it (butternut squash is pretty easy to peel), and sliced it into half-inch rounds. Then we drizzled them with butter and brown sugar and baked them for 30 minutes. It makes a relatively fast winter side dish. The rounds reheat great as leftovers, too. We wrapped the bottom in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

For the second stage, we cooked the bottom like acorn squash. We sliced it in half, scooped out the seeds, and put in some butter and maple syrup. Then we put the halves cut side up in a dish with half an inch of water and baked it for an hour. We really like butternut squash now.

Sweet potatoes!

We didn’t get to any sweet potatoes this week, but they are keeping just fine in their unwashed state. I’m cooking what’s left of my uglies today to make souffle to freeze. (That’s what’s keeping the butternut squash company in the picture above.) The ugly sweet potatoes still seemed fine, but I wanted to make sure I got to use them.(more…)